HONOLULU- The Hawaii Pacific University women's basketball team played an exhibition match against the University of Hawaii Tuesday night in the Stan Sheriff Center. It was the first game under new head coach Katie Novak for the Sharks, as they fell to their Division I rivals, 73-49.

The Sharks will be making their home debut later this week, while the Rainbow Wahine head to Oregon for two road games.  

After an early 5-0 lead going in favor of Hawai'i, HPU looked to find their first bucket of the game. With a little more than three minutes played in the game, graduate Abby Spurgin connected on a jumper to get the Sharks on the board. The score was tied 7-7 when junior Haley Masaki and sophomore Jordyn Jensen connected on back-to-back threes to put HPU up by six. Masaki then traded a UHM jumper for her second three to give the Sharks their biggest lead of seven. 

It was at this point when the Rainbow Wahine made a shift in their defensive hold, by implementing a full court press, which flustered the HPU players. Despite that, the Sharks only trailed by one at the end of the first quarter, 19-18. 

HPU shot 6-for-7 in the first quarter, including 4-for-7 from beyond the arc. They also out rebounded the Rainbow Wahine 11-3.

The second quarter is when the momentum shifted heavily in favor of Hawai'i. The Sharks, while committing less turnovers, just could not find a steady shooting rhythm, as they were held to one field goal in the quarter. As the buzzer sounded for halftime, HPU trailed 42-22.  

Although the Sharks started to find their shot once again in the second half and outscoring the Rainbow Wahine 18-9 in the fourth quarter, the lead for Hawai'i had already been far too cemented, as HPU fell 73-49 to UHM

Leading the Sharks in scoring was Spurgin as she finished with 15 points and completed a double-double, hauling in ten rebounds. Jensen had 13 points in the contest, while Masaki scored nine. Graduate Keona Loftis led the team in the assist category with three.

The Sharks will make their home debut in the Shark Tank later this week on Saturday, November 5. They will host the Hawaiian National Team for a scrimmage game with tip set for 4:30 p.m. HT.